The old “I was looking at my saved online reader links” comes into play with how I found The Flavors of Iraq: Impressions of My Vanished Homeland by Feurat Alani and Léonard Cohen. I saw that it was the only one in that email (how I save the links) and figured it was a sign to read it. From May 2024, the history I grew up with comes back into play. However, instead of seeing it from an American or Western point of view, we follow one man from France as he visits his family in Iraq during the late 1980s and then again in the early 1990s. We see him change from a boy who played with his uncle’s pistols, to a young man who sees how privileged he is. He sees how his country is divided not only because of its association with being a territory, by war, but even within itself.
The format is a bit odd as it is written in a tweet format. There are a few images that pop up that are not abstract but are also not “pure realism” to them. I am not sure how the final results were, but what I saw in the online reader they are expressive and has an off feeling to them that helps with the emotions of the time and situations. The colors can be a bit hard, even invasive, but also help keep that tone. 
You can read the introduction by a former American soldier (later a protestor of what happened) who participated in one of the wars that would create deviation for the people, but it could color your feelings about what you are then going to read. I was torn about reading it, but most of it was read. I then was about a third of the way through things when I started my review. I am not sure how things will turn out, but since this is from the point of view of a man who was from Iraq, but had a Western upbringing, it is a powerful piece of history.
